The most represented clubs in the World Cup: Catalan supremacy… and an English surprise from Real Madrid.

Barcelona will be the club to field the most international players among Europe’s top 5 clubs at the 2026 World Cup after signing England’s Anthony Gordon from Newcastle, with 16 players from the Catalan side representing their national teams at the tournament.

Barcelona are tied with Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Manchester City, who also have 16 international players at the World Cup, while Paris Saint-Germain are second with 14 players.

Spain get 8 players

Spain will have the most Barcelona players on their roster as coach Luis de la Fuente has called up 8 players for the tournament: Lamine Yamal, Pedro, Cupars, Olmo, Ferran Torres, Juan Garcia, Eric Garcia and Xavi.

Barcelona players will form the core of the squad as La Roja look to win their second World Cup title after winning in South Africa in 2010.

England second

England are the second most representative team for Barcelona players thanks to the loan signings of Anthony Gordon and Marcus Rashford, while Brazil’s Rafinha, Netherlands’ Frankie de Jong, France’s Jules Cunde, Uruguay’s Ronald Araujo, Portugal’s Joao Cancelo and Egypt’s Hamza Abdel Karim complete the World Cup squad. cup players.

Real Madrid without Spain representation

In a remarkable irony, Real Madrid will for the first time in history have no international players in the Spain squad, despite the Royals taking part in the tournament with 9 players representing other teams.

The second highest number in Barca’s history

Barcelona’s selection of 16 players for the 2026 World Cup is the second highest number in the club’s history. The record was set at the previous world championship held in Qatar-2022, when 17 Barcelona players were invited to participate in the tournament.

One of the most notable surprises is that Crystal Palace are one of the most represented clubs at the World Cup, with 11 players representing their countries, ahead of big clubs such as Real Madrid, Liverpool and Manchester United.

Distribution of players between clubs

16 players: “Barcelona”, “Arsenal”, “Bavaria”, “Manchester City”.

14 players: “Paris Saint-Germain”.

11 players: “Atletico Madrid”, “Crystal Palace”.

10 players: Liverpool

9 players: Real Madrid, Manchester United, Aston Villa and AC Milan.

8 players: Olympique Marseille, Stuttgart, Sunderland